The Outpost (1995/I)

Director:

Joe Gayton

Writers:

Jonathan Craven (writer)
Phil Mittleman (writer)

Release Date:

8 October 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Government Created Him. Now They Must Destroy Him.

Plot:

A top secret experiment intended to produce a superhuman has gone terribly wrong. Now the creators, trapped in a remote desert outpost...

Plot Keywords:

Power Failure | Dream | Radioactive Waste | Brain Eating | Impalement

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Lance Henriksen	...	Stockton
Claire Stansfield	...	Joanne
John Diehl	...	Alex
Natasha Gregson Wagner	...	Wendy
Gregory Sporleder	...	Rob
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Scott
Dan Blom	...	Thor
Adam Solomon	...	Mark
John Apicella	...	Larry
Peter Shepherd	...	Frank

Also Known As:

Hills Have Eyes Part 3 (USA) (working title)
Mind Ripper
Wes Craven Presents Mind Ripper
Wes Craven's 'The Mindripper'

MPAA:

Rated R for sci-fi gore and some language.

Runtime:

94 min | Argentina:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Germany:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Company:

Kushner-Locke Company, The

Trivia:

Giovanni Ribisi's first film.

Quotes:

Joanne: Great! What do we do now?
Rob: Let's call Oprah. Hell, I don't know.

Movie Connections:

References Aliens (1986)

You really need to be drunk to enjoy this

I just bought this as part of a Wes Craven DVD box set (along with Scream, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Last House on the Left) and felt ever so slightly conned. The film is not directed by Wes Craven (he has an executive producer credit) and a dream box set would omit this sci-fi B-movie in favour of Nightmare on Elm Street (I would settle for The People Under the Stairs).

With that being said, this is an ideal film for watching with a gang of drunk mates after a night in the pub. It's a creature feature in a remote claustrophobic environment and it ticks along quite nicely on a sub-Alien template, taking advantage of all the usual sci-fi horror clichés. The monster is cheap but effective and it is sympathetically played. The rest of the characters are just monster fodder and are badly underwritten, though a father-son theme breaks through to complement the monster-creator theme. Lance Henrikson, the brunette girl in the shower, and the bloke who plays Phoebe's brother in Friends are worth watching. The rest of the cast stink. There are enough gruesome moments to keep a drunken audience's interest. It's also fun ticking off the clichés as they mount up, and laughing at the obvious dialogue. I defy anyone (after a few drinks) not to laugh at the last scene.

So not a classic sci-fi horror, but an entertaining mess of a movie with redeeming qualities, best viewed with friends and alcohol.